Peace & Justice

NEW YORK (IDN) – A group of Sri Lankan academics teaching in educational institutions abroad – and numbering about 50 – has written to condemn ongoing violence against Sri Lanka’s Muslim community, especially the “brutal attacks” perpetrated early March.

In a letter published by 'Groundviews', they say: “We are outraged that the government has failed to act speedily and decisively to stop the violence and bring those responsible to justice. The government must act firmly to prevent more destruction and bloodshed.”

ROME (IDN) – Has Turkey changed under Erdoğan? The question may seem absurd due to the habit of considering Turkey a secular and Westernised country before Recep Erdoğan came to power.

However, this consolidated image turns out to be false. There has been a change, but not in substance: what has changed is its exteriority. In fact, albeit with periodic recourse to elections, the country has always been governed in an authoritarian way, and today this feature is only more evident and its quality is more pronounced.

LONDON (IDN) – One of the many challenges facing today's world is corruption and one sector in which this is particularly evident is that of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Controlled by national governments, SOEs rank among the largest companies in the world, often serving as some of the biggest employers in their country. They are central to the daily lives of citizens, providing critical goods and public services in sectors such as transport, utilities, telecommunications and health. If they are corrupt, the impact filters down to all aspects of society.

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – What do we in the West know about Islam? Perhaps more than we did before 9/11 but not much.

When Tony Blair was prime minister of the United Kingdom he was photographed walking along holding the Koran. President George W. Bush said repeatedly that Islam was a religion of peace.

Even though at that time one of the most influential American political writers, Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard University, had written that it wasn’t fundamentalism that was the problem, it was Islam itself.

WASINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – Corruption continued to dominate headlines across the world in 2017. It ended political careers, motivated citizens to organize and advocate for reform, and was spurred by another major leak of documents revealing money laundering and elite capture in the Paradise Papers. It is one of the most challenging open government topics facing the world today.

This is the fifth in a series of reports highlighting salient aspects ofTransparency International's latest analysis on challenges posed by corruption around the world as well as successes and failures of efforts targeting a scourge that eats into the vitals of human rights. – The Editor.

LONDON (IDN) – Civil society organisations (CSOs) and independent media play a vital role in anti-corruption efforts, yet CSOs working on governance and human rights issues are subject to ever-greater restrictions on their operations while attacks on journalists are on the rise in many parts of the world.

This is the fourth in a series of reports highlighting salient aspects ofTransparency International's latest analysis on challenges posed by corruption around the world as well as successes and failures of efforts targeting a scourge that eats into the vitals of human rights. – The Editor.

LONDON (IDN) – In a region stricken by violent conflicts and dictatorships, corruption remains endemic in the Arab states while assaults on freedom of expression, press freedoms and civil society continue to escalate, reports Transparency International, the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption.

In its Corruption Perceptions Index 2017 released on February 21, the organisation notes that while there are signs of some small strides being taken to combat corruption, the overall picture is one of stagnation.

This is the third in a series of reports highlighting salient aspects ofTransparency International's latest analysis on challenges posed by corruption around the world as well as successes and failures of efforts targeting a scourge that eats into the vitals of human rights. – The Editor.

The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

This is the second in a series of reports highlighting salient aspects of Transparency International's latest analysis on challenges posed by corruption around the world as well as successes and failures of efforts targeting a scourge that eats into the vitals of human rights. – The Editor.

LONDON (IDN) – When it comes to corruption, Western Europe is the world's best performing region while the Eastern and South-East Europe region is among the worst, according to the latest index from Transparency International (TI), the global anti-corruption coalition.

The group's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2017 released on February 21 shows that authoritarianism rose across the region in 2017, hindering anti-corruption efforts and threatening civil liberties, with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and independent media experiencing challenges in their ability to monitor and criticise decision-makers.

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The new, vicious, fighting in the Congo is the fourth round of warfare since independence in 1960. No other country has seen so many “blue berets” – UN peacekeeping troops – in its short history.

The Belgian colonialists may have exploited it and transferred massive amounts of its wealth back to Belgium but one leader after another has continued in its steps, making use of the country’s vast mineral deposits to build an edifice of wealth and unilateral power. Leaders have played on tribal fears and insecurity. War has been the outcome.